Sitter helps Elgin tackle daunting challenges

Adorning the east wall at Chesbrough Field House are team pictures of the most accomplished squads in the rich history of Elgin athletics.

A look at the collection offers a walk down memory lane for any longtime Maroons boys basketball fan, with photos of successful teams from one decade after another forever enshrined in the school's gymnasium.

The 2007-08 boys basketball team will soon have its place on the wall, and with it the memory of this year's storybook season will be preserved.

After a 6-7 start to the campaign, it appeared this year wouldn't be any different than the string of disappointing seasons that had come before.

However, with 15 wins in their final 18 games, the Maroons mounted a late-season push that resulted in a 22-10 record and the program's first regional title in six years and first sectional crown in a decade.

Behind that success was the unlikeliest of leaders in first-year coach Mike Sitter.

The circumstances coming into the season couldn't have been more challenging for Sitter, who didn't have a game of varsity basketball coaching experience when he took over for Rob Brault six days before the start of the season following Brault's removal in the wake of his arrest on charges of driving under the influence.

Despite all of that, Sitter was able to create an atmosphere conducive to winning.

From an X's and O's standpoint, Sitter succeeded in getting Elgin to improve its defense and ballhandling, which keyed the late run. However, his coaching prowess went well beyond strategy and game planning.

Looming largest was Sitter's ability to motivate Elgin's talented corps of seniors to finally realize its potential. For that, Sitter joins Burlington Central's Chris Payne as the 2008 Courier News Co-Coaches of the Year.

"Coach Sitter said all the right things and most importantly he instilled in us that we can do anything we put our minds to," Elgin senior Jeremy Granger said. "He just preached that to us all season. We finally listened and did what he told us to do, and we came out with a successful season."

Despite Sitter's lack of varsity basketball coaching experience, he wasn't a stranger to his players after having spent the previous six years as a coach at the lower levels.

This season was to be his first as a varsity assistant, but the unfortunate events surrounding Brault's dismissal left Sitter as the choice to assume the head coaching job on an interim basis.

According to Sitter, the change in head coaches wasn't as tumultuous as one might expect.

"I was a varsity coach anyway so it didn't change my schedule, and the kids already knew me so it didn't change anything for them," Sitter said. "To be honest, it was really the media and the all the outside questions and factors like fans chanting 'Where's your coach?' Those were really the only things we had to deal with that were different for us."

Nonetheless, Sitter admits it took him a little over a month to become truly comfortable in his new role.

It wasn't until after Elgin dropped three of four games at the Elgin Holiday Tournament to slip to 6-7 that Sitter and his staff sat down and evaluated the team's strengths and weaknesses. From that point, Sitter felt more able than ever to tackle the task at hand.

Meanwhile, Granger and fellow veterans Armani Williams, D'Angelo Stewart and Kenny Williams needed some time to adjust after following Brault's lead their entire varsity careers.

"I'd been with coach Brault for three years, so it took a little time to get used to," Armani Williams said. "Coach Brault was strict, but with coach Sitter it was definitely more drills and not scrimmaging as much as we used to. (Sitter) would make us work on it until we got it right, and that's what I really appreciate about him."

With Elgin's loss to eventual state runner-up Zion-Benton in the NIU Class 4A Super-Sectional, Sitter's run as interim coach came to an end. Following School District U-46 protocol, the head coaching position will be posted and open to applicants.

Jeff Howard, who in eight seasons as a Maroons assistant has coached alongside four different head coaches, echoes the sentiments voiced by many when discussing Sitter's potential return to the program.

"I really enjoyed working with Mike, and I really hope this whole thing is just a formality to get the head coaching job," Howard said. "I think he understands the importance of the entire program, even including the lower levels and the grade school kids.

"If we want to keep this momentum going, it's got to start in the feeder programs and summer camps, and I believe Mike has that vision."

If anyone seems suited to bring Elgin back to its traditional place as a basketball power, it's Sitter, who grew up watching the Maroons enjoy plenty of success under legendary coaches Bill Chesbrough and Jim Harrington.

The fact that this year's team will take its place alongside some of Chesbrough and Harrington's best squads on the east wall in Chesbrough Field House isn't lost on Sitter.

"I'll always have the pride of seeing my first team and those guys who I really liked coaching being on that wall," Sitter said. "That's probably my biggest accomplishment."